Some things are surprisingly different in Costa Rica than we think they are. Two weeks ago, I told you my experiences on setting up banking and utilities after our real estate. And today I am in my final blog about my story that started on January 25th, 2013. My wife and I think it turned…
When you grow up with burgers, you cannot live without them. Moving to Costa Rica doesn’t change your eating habits. If you have grown up eating hamburgers and hotdogs, you cannot just start eating Gallo Pinto the next day. The advantage is that if you move to Costa Rica, thousands of US citizens have done…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes I am often asked, with a lot of skepticism, why yoga and horses? Where is the connection? My standard answer is; I have experienced the similarities between riding and yoga practice. The same stillness and union I find in my yoga practice I feel when I ride. Last week I…
by guest blogger TicoNuevo Back home, before I tackled the financial flowchart, we were dealing with a number of banks, and credit card and financial institutions; some of whom we felt either we would not need, whose fees would be too expensive to use when moving to Costa Rica or would not be easy to…
Yes, we have hail and lightning in Costa Rica. Real estate agents always write about the beautiful weather in Costa Rica, but this time I wanted to write about bad weather in Costa Rica, in fact, about hail and lightning in Costa Rica. The girl in the photo below is not in Denver, Colorado. She…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes You have been doing important things all your life. Now it is time to take it easy, by doing nothing important for a while. Hundreds of baby boomers who live in Grecia are barely surviving by doing nothing important. Grecia seems to be the perfect place on earth to do…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Setting up Banking and Utilities after our real estate closing was a treat! During the two weeks we visited the country during our Costa Rica real estate closing, we enjoyed some downtime. Also, we did some touring and exploring and learning more about our newly-adopted second home. While meeting more…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes There have been several changes in the temporary Costa Rican residency policy and law that affect the financial wellbeing of long-term visitors. This includes those visitors applying for one of the three immigrant resident categories. Just before our arrival, Immigration made changes in the temporary Costa Rican residency. We received…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes We hit on 3 more challenges before closing on our property. I apologize for the length of time that has passed since my last blog in late February. I wanted to let some time go by to digest our house purchase, before writing the last chapter, and wrap up our…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes When you move to another country, it’s important to create a timeline for your plan. If you are changing countries, there’s a pot full of planning, changes, and notifications that need to be implemented. This is necessary to achieve a successful and less stressful transition. In my last blog, I…
Most U.S. citizens and green card holders rushed to file a US tax return by April 15. However, Americans living abroad on the regular due date of their tax return can take advantage of several extensions. We updated this blog on 3/27/2020 First and foremost, American expatriates get an automatic two-month extension until June 15…
by Ivo Henfling The first time I was standing in line in a hardware store in Escazu, the attendant asked me “Y vos macho, en que te puedo servir”? And you “Macho”, what can I do for you. I didn’t realize I was being called blondy. (I was far from blond, I used to be…